Excerpts from a presentation by Glen Hinckley, Farmingdale State College.

From the Executive Director

In his classic study of College: The Undergraduate Experience in America (1987), Ernest Boyer concluded that colleges in the U.S. had lost sight of the moral and civic purpose of education. Through the years, others have acknowledged (and some have bemoaned) the trends cited by Boyer: confusion about mission, obsession with vocationalism, faculty who focus exclusively on disciplinary expertise and technical skills, a rift between academic and student affairs divisions, the widening gap between colleges and universities and the larger world. Recently, however, new opportunities for civic education have presented themselves. The financial meltdown and the election of the first African-American president in late 2008 have captured the attention of college students nationwide. Moreover, some faculty and staff at our colleges have begun to devise ways of tapping this new student awareness (and their impulse toward volunteerism) so as to engage students in the community and the world.

In November 2010 faculty members and other representatives of Faculty Resource Network institutions addressed these questions and issues during a national symposium on "Engaging Students in the Community and the World," hosted by Howard University in Washington, D.C.

The 2010 National Symposium examined how colleges and universities can effectively reclaim their vital role as educators of individuals and citizens who are knowledgeable, civically engaged, and morally and socially responsible for others--in the community and across the world.

In this eighth issue of our online NETWORK: A Journal of Faculty Development, we present excerpts from a number of the presentations that were delivered during that symposium.